Hong Kong’s spirited women suffer second lacrosse defeat in South Korea

Hong Kong’s women remain winless at the Asia-Pacific Championship after suffering a 14-9 loss to next month’s Lacrosse World Cup group stage opponents South Korea despite a spirited comeback on Monday on Jeju island.

Travis Taylor’s side, ranked 18th in the world, failed to fully recover from trailing 10-0 at half-time in Seogwipo, although dug deep to outscore the 15th-ranked tournament hosts 6-3 in the second half. South Korea had lost 14-11 to Japan in their opener on Sunday.

Hong Kong will be reunited with South Korea at next month’s World Cup in England, where Taylor’s charges will face indigenous Canadian nation Haudenosaunee, Italy and Switzerland as they look to improve on finishing 18th in 2013.

“It was a little frustrating as we were down 10-0 in the first half before we got our first goal,” said Canadian coach Taylor, after Hong Kong failed to bounce back from Sunday’s opening 15-10 defeat by world number 11 New Zealand.

“We ended up winning the second half 6-3 which was a big rebound for us and showed us we can play with Korea.

“I learned a lot about the players we will face from Korea and who their big players would be. We wanted to win the game, but we are happy that we came back from a 10-0 deficit for the rest of the game and show Korea that we can be dangerous.”

Hong Kong continue their campaign on Tuesday against Japan before facing a combined ASPAC United side and Australia over the following two days.

Coach Travis Taylor upbeat despite Hong Kong’s defeat in Asia-Pacific lacrosse opener

“We feel we have a good idea of what they will do as we play them in the first round and we are excited for the World Cup,” added Taylor.

“We look forward to getting experience against Japan and Australia and hopefully come out of here with a team that is ready for the World Cup to try and get a result that we want to at the World Cup.”

Hong Kong’s men also continued their campaign on Monday, but after beating China 19-2 on Sunday, Scott Browning’s side suffered a 13-3 loss to tournament favourites Japan, who beat Australia 12-8 in their opener.

“It was another good, hard-fought game,” said Browning. “The coaches are very proud of the effort.

“These games against very good teams are so important for our development and progress.”